Reduced Biling Rates-reduced Pay?

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I RECIEVED A LETTER FROM MY AGENCY YESTERDAY THAT STATES THAT BECAUSE THEY HAVE TO REDUCE THEIR BILLING RATES THEY ARE REDUCING OUR PAYRATES AS FOLLOWS RN's -$4,00 an hour LPN's - $3.00 an hour and CNA's -$2.00 AN HOUR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm furious!!!!! Has anyone else experienced this? I'm in Florida.:angryfire:angryfire:angryfire:angryfire:a ngryfire

I am not trying to be rude or anything else, and have owned agencies thru the years and contracts do get changed with facilities when the new bids go out. And it is not presumptive at all, only going by the information that was posted. Have learned long ago never to assume anything but make sure that all facts are posted.

There are other reasons that billing rates need to get reduced due to what is going on in the area, or higher costs to the agency for what ever reason. They do have the right to reduce pay if they want,you can chose to accept it or not accept it. That is my point, you are working per diem for them, and they can do as they please.

If the letter states that they had to reduce their billing rates because of the contracts that they have were also getting reduced, then that is what you need to go by, not someone that knows someone.

When our state reduced payments for all medi-cal services by 10%, an agency I know of did the same for pay rates. (reduced pay by 10% to all nurses working cases funded by medi-cal). I 'understand' this in theory, but sure did not make it any easier for nurses to accept. 10% of your hourly rate can make a big difference, especially if you live paycheck to paycheck. Of course, nurses had the option of accepting the decrease (in writing) or finding work elsewhere. It's a bad situation all around.

I have worked for agencies that 1) reduced nurse pay when Medicaid reimbursement went down or 2) offered reduced rates to certain facilities to "beat" the competing agencies and generate more shifts. In the case fo the 2nd, we would get letters with the pay rates for different facilities that differed from are usual rate. It's up to the nurse whether to accept these assignments. I usually work with more than one agency at atime to get the best selection of assignments and the best pay rates. The agencies that pay the most often have less assignments available. I have worked for many agencies over the years and this seems to be a fairly common practice even though it seems unfair.

Governor Charlie Crist (Mr. I want to attract more nurses to FL) has been working to reduce healthcare spending in the state by reducing reimbursement. As to how he thinks that this will "attract nurses" as how else does he think we get paid...I don't know.

The current practice also of medicare denying payment for issues like decubes, catheter related infections, is going to impact FL nurses more than many other states, due to the elderly population.

I used to own a agency. The facility isnt going to tell you that and those changes are done at a administrative level. The nurse managers and down probally would not know about it. Suz is right.. thats exactly whats happening in Florida!